interview in the film “Never Give Up”

Unedited transcript

The dharma is, buddha dharma is sometimes what we call – for example I wrote a book, the Joy of Living, in the beginning paragraph of book I am saying that buddhism is not religion. Why I am saying that, something totally which is beyond our normal human life. It is not like that. Like love, compassion, awareness, mindfulness and all these things are universal and everybody has it. And everybody can practice this. And impermanence, karma, cause, conditions. And the nature of reality, which is emptiness. This is why, sometime so called religion, people feel so oh religious, that is very very, how to say, religious is very strange, is mystery. This is why, sometimes it becomes like, our concept how we look at on the dharma, on the spiritual path, it becomes obstacle also. This is why sometime for example when you teach loving kindness compassion you don’t have to call as religious practice. Also Buddha teaches loving kindness many leader of religion they teach loving kindness compassion, and we all have loving kindness and compassion certain level whether we know or we don’t know, that is the issue. But we all have loving kindness compassion. So just nurture your own loving kindness compassion and manifest. That is why I think His Holiness Karmapa sees that and sees the different perception about religious. Many different people see religious as positive or as negative or many different ways. This is why His Holiness Karmapa also really concerned about that. And mainly the meaning of dharma is to benefit sentient beings so you don’t have to call religious but you just use which is universal feeling, universal knowledge, universal awareness, loving kindness compassion. And you don’t have to become Buddhist, you don’t have to become religious, also possible.